Long Beach Unified school board votes to close Monroe K-8 in Lakewood

LONG BEACH - More than 650 James Monroe K-8 School students will have to find a new place to learn.

The Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to close the Lakewood school at the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

It's the seventh school the district has closed since 2008.

The board took the drastic measure in its effort to trim $20 million from its budget. The closure will save $2.7 million a year, said Superintendent Chris Steinhauser.

"If we didn't make these cuts, we would have to cut programs that would impact all students across the district," Steinhauser said.

Regarding the Monroe closure, board Vice President John McGinnis said, "This is a necessary cut."

No positions will be eliminated with the cuts, Steinhauser said.

The board also approved eliminating grades six through eight at David Burcham K-8 School. That action will save the district $800,000 a year, the superintendent said.

Any student attending either school will receive a letter in a few days explaining the board's vote and detailed information on selecting a new school, Steinhauser said.

The Monroe school boundaries will be integrated into the Cleveland Elementary and Bancroft Middle schools' boundaries. But parents will also have first priority to send their children to any school in the district, if space is available, he said.

That option wasn't a consolation to many of the more than two dozen parents who attended the board meeting.

Many parents said they had bought homes close to the school, which is nestled in a southeast Lakewood neighborhood at 4400 Ladoga Ave., specifically so their children could attend the same school through eighth grade in the proximity of their home.

Many parents, like Jackie Santos, whose daughter is in the sixth grade at Monroe, also said the adjustment will be difficult on their children, who will be uprooted and unable to see longtime friends.

"My daughter used to attend Buffum Elementary until it closed," Santos said. "Then she transferred to Monroe. Now she'll have to transfer again."

Many parents were also upset that they found out about the possible closing only last month and weren't given a chance to voice their suggestions that might avoid the closure.

Steinhauser said it's the district staff's responsibility to make those choices and that including the parents would have been "chaotic."

With 655 students, Monroe is the smallest of Long Beach's 11 K-8 schools.

Monroe and Burcham have low numbers of neighborhood students.

Monroe, which was opened in 1953, has just 162 from its immediate neighborhood, according to district officials. Of Burcham's 186 students in grades six through eight, 55 live within the school neighborhood, officials said.

The district said nearby schools can handle the displaced students.

In the past decade, Long Beach Unified's student population has dropped by 16,000 to about 81,000, officials said.

Among the proposed uses for Monroe is a home to the 17-person staff of the district's Personnel Commission, Steinhauser said.